The Baby Reimagined is a song-for-song reinvention of the debut album from Samia. It features old friends and new connections forged over mutual admiration. While some remix albums struggle to justify their existence, this one is a testament to the songwriting at the core of Samia’s work. In any hands, these songs are special. And in the carefully selected hands at work across this release, these songs are transcendent.

Since announcing in December with Briston Maroney’s spare, soulful take on “Is There Something in the Movies?,” a few additional tracks have seen the light of day: The District’s twinkly emo makeover of “Stellate,” Bartees Strange’s interstellar revamp of the album-opening “Pool,” and Christian Lee Hutson’s beautiful, unhurried version of “Does Not Heal.” But today you can listen in full.  Stream below or wherever you get your music.

The Baby was a long time coming. And despite the album’s lyrical preoccupation with being alone, it took a village of Samia’s friends to raise it. So it’s little wonder that, in its wake, Samia has enlisted a new group of friends and contemporaries for The Baby Reimagined, out January 15th. Featuring covers, reinventions and remixes, the release is a top to bottom reimagining of her debut, filled with renditions from Bartees Strange, MICHELLE, Field Medic, The Districts, and many more.

Briston Maroney’s take on “Is There Something in the Movies?” serves as the lead single, and is available today wherever you stream music. It comes on the heels of the Anjimile version of “Waverly,” a wintry folk makeover that accompanied the recent music video a few weeks back. Briston’s cover lends his Americana sensibilities to The Baby closer, its earnest heartbreak conveyed through an emotive tenor. The reverb of his guitar echoes in the background, blessing the cinematic tune with a fresh, Western twang.

“This song is the most representative of Samia’s ability to tell a very specific story in a relatable way,” says Briston. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to retell this story in an attempt to show my appreciation as a listener for Samia’s willingness to share her experiences with us all.”

Lots to appreciate here. Full tracklist below. Pre-save The Baby Reimagined now.

01 Is There Something in the Movies? – Briston Maroney Version
02 Minnesota – MICHELLE Remix
03 Winnebago – Charlie Hickey Version
04 Waverly – Anjimile Version
05 Does Not Heal – Christian Lee Hutson Version
06 Triptych – Field Medic Version
07 Stellate – The Districts Remix
08 Limbo Bitch – Donnal Missal Remix
09 Big Wheel – Palehound Remix
10 Fit N Full – Remo Drive Version
11 Pool – Bartees Strange Version

Get your copy of The (original) Baby over in our shop.

Today Samia shares a music video for Baby-standout “Waverly.”  Directed by frequent visual collaborator Matt Hixon, the clip eschews the urban vignettes of the song’s lyrics for a woozy backwoods trip that may or may not end in the den of a low-grade cult. In what has slowly become Samia’s signature visual style, the video is a surrealist, dream-like trek through the absurd. Watch it above.

The release of the video arrives alongside a re-imagining of “Waverly” courtesy of indie folk artist Anjimile (Giver Taker is one of our favorite records of the year!), who spins the song’s buoyant, piano-led energy into a hushed ballad that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Sufjan Stevens album. The rendition serves as the first in a series of collaborations, reworks and re-imaginings set for release over the coming months. We’ll have more details there soon. In the meantime, listen to the cover below or wherever you stream music. 

Today Samia shares a new full band version of “Is There Something in the Movies?,” the album closing number from her debut, The Baby.  Available wherever you stream music, this new take is much more faithful to the sonics of the live version, which anyone who has seen Samia over the past two years will recognize. Alongside the single comes a live studio music video, filmed, directed and edited by Matthew Hixon captured at Red Convertible Recording in Brooklyn, NY.

“We’ve been playing this version of ‘movies’ live for a couple years but opted to put a more stripped down version that’s centered around the vocals on the record.” Samia shares, adding, “Making this video was the first time we got to hang as a band since quarantine started, so it was a special moment for all of us! I love to rock with my band.”

Snag your copy of The Baby over in our shop right now.

Today marks the release of Samia’s debut album, The Baby. She celebrated its impending release earlier this week with the final teaser from the record, “Tiptych.” This is a song that Samia herself calls “a pretty blatant cry for help and an opportunity to confess my fear of being misunderstood.” So it’s no wonder that the video for The Baby-standout is about a relationship with a ventriloquist dummy. Communication seems nearly impossible in the codependent relationship at the core of the video, directed by Samia’s longtime friend Fred Hechinger. The Samia of “Triptych” embraces and teases her helpless partner at whim. Her conflicting emotions match the dichotomy of the song, a peaceful, indie rock track belied by taunting, aggressive sentiments. Somehow even though we’ve yet to release her debut, it’s accurate to say this is classic Samia.

“I wrote ‘Triptych’ sobbing in a green room in Denver,” she shares. “I’d just read the story of Francis Bacon and his lover/muse, George Dyer, whose chaotic lifestyle served as Bacon’s artistic inspiration. George Dyer overdosed in the bathroom of a hotel room paid for by Bacon, who famously painted a triptych of his lover’s final moments. I had just been through a pretty tough breakup and felt I might be purposefully getting myself into dicey situations to justify my big feelings and write about them.”

It’s a fitting song to celebrate the release of, The Baby, available here. The album is a big, soaring, ambitious collection of bouncey indie folk, artful pop and bouyant rock. Contemporary ideals about romantice (“Is There Something in the Movies?”) or supposed parallels between fitness and happiness (“Fit N Full”), tying each to her own personal experiences. The insightful wordplay showcases the voice of an emerging lyricist with their pulse on the modern condition. 

While these songs explore Samia’s fear of being alone, they were lovingly brought to life with the help of her community. Many of her tourmates eventually became collaborators as she prioritized working with old friends and kindred spirits. Early demos of The Baby were workshopped with members of the band Active Bird Community, and the album was produced by Jake Luppen, Nathan Stocker & Caleb Hinz, the former two best known as members of indie-pop rebels Hippo Campus. Along with studio whiz Lars Stalfors (Foster the People, Soccer Mommy), Samia assembled a seemingly disparate crew, stretching from Los Angeles to Minnesota to New York, connected only by her trust and vision. 

Today you can hear two new songs from Samia’s forthcoming debut, The Baby. The double single pairs the wistful yet buoyant “Big Wheel” against the stark, lowlit heartbeat of “Stellate.” While it showcases two distinct sounds from the album, the songs are bridged together by the twin themes of internal and external conflict. 

“’Big Wheel’ is about avoiding conflict at any cost,” Samia shares. “I wrote it after a few hours of laying in bed imagining hypothetical conversations with people that I was too scared to have in real life. It’s a passive confession of harbored resentments buried in a laundry list of gratitude.“

On “Stellate”, she further struggles with confrontation and how such fears lead to a power imbalance between herself and her partner. “‘Stellate’ and ‘Big Wheel’ are both love letters to people/parts of my life I had trouble confronting conversationally,” she shares. “‘Stellate’ is a note to myself trying to make sense of old traumas and ‘Big Wheel’ is a plea to the people around me, but releasing them together feels like closing a chapter.”

The accompanying video for “Big Wheel,” directed by her drummer Noah Rauchwerk, presents another imbalance, this time between the IRL & URL world, as 3D avatars of Samia begin to spill out into an unsuspecting reality. It wasn’t until the video was underway that Rauchwerk stumbled over a second layer of meaning specific to the moment: “The combination of the nostalgic and joyous home videos with the unsettling 3D models says something to me about how Covid has forced us into our phones and the digital world even more,” says the director. “There’s this huge collective feeling from the loss of human interaction and most of the things that previously brought us so much joy and purpose. Watching shows online and listening to records is great, but nothing compares to sweating at a show with all your friends and screaming the words, or playing on tour with the people you love. Those experiences bring an overwhelming feeling of presence and life that we have all been missing.”

The Baby is coming August 28th, and is available for pre-order in our shop.

It’s been a long time coming. But today Samia finally announces her debut album, The Baby. It’s due August 28th. It includes the previous-released “Is There Something in The Movies,” along with the single “Fit N Full,” which just arrived this morning. Deceptively bright, “Fit N Full” explores the long-purported relationship between a person’s physical fitness and their happiness. The narrator, “hollow and amazing,” sings of diets and lifestyles with no worries about their potential side effects; instead, she resigns herself to the listener’s desires: “If you want/ I can take it off.” The video, directed by Martin MacPherson, plays further into this empty exhibition, a camcorder following Samia as she stretches on the beach or exercises next to a pool. Watch below. 

Starting today, you can pre-order the LP on three different limited edition colors. There’s only a few hundred of each. Get the album on BONE VINYL, available alongside an exclusive tee-shirt inspired by the “Fit N Full” music video over on Samia’s webstore. Get the album on BABY PINK VINYL over in the Vinyl Me, Please shop (it’ll be up in about an hour, in case the link isn’t working yet!). Get the album on LIGHT BLUE vinyl at your local record store — while supplies last, participating shops will also pair a limited edition The Baby tote with your copy of the album. Perfect for curbside pickup. Search for your local record store here, and ask them to make sure that they’re carrying the record & tote for you. And, finally, in a nod to her hometown record store –Rough Trade NYC– you can get SIGNED COPIES of the Light Blue LP along with The Baby tote via the Rough Trade online store right here.

But enough about pre-orders. Let’s talk about the music?

While these songs explore Samia’s fear of being alone, they were lovingly brought to life with the help of her community. Many of her tourmates eventually became collaborators as she prioritized working with old friends and kindred spirits. Early demos of The Baby were workshopped with members of the band Active Bird Community, and the album was produced by Jake Luppen, Nathan Stocker & Caleb Hinz, AKA our very own Baby Boys. Along with studio whiz Lars Stalfors (whose work you’ve heard on records from Foster the People & Soccer Mommy), Samia assembled a seemingly disparate crew, stretching from Los Angeles to Minnesota to New York, connected only by her trust and vision. And boy did it pay off. 

We couldn’t be more proud that this record has our logo on it. And we absolutely can’t wait for you to hear it.

More soon.

It’s been seven months since we released a new Samia song. That’s far too long. Especially in times like these.

So we’re thrilled to announce that today brings a brand new single: “Is There Something in the Movies?”

If you’ve caught her on the road last year (remember live shows?), you might recognize this one. The recorded version is achingly spare and features Samia at her lyrical best, gently swaying back and forth between the personal and the universal with a vocal take that cuts straight to the bone. The song is also accompanied by a music video – directed by Samia herself, with help from Matt Hixon – starring her longtime friends Maya Hawke and Charlie Plummer as, surprise(!), a pair of actors.

Throughout the video, Samia haunts the set of their unspecified film, trying and failing to force herself into the moments between them. It’s a poignant depiction of a very specific sort of loss and alienation.

“It’s a song about heartbreak and disenchantment with the entertainment industry,” says Samia. “I felt betrayed by someone honoring that fantasy over my love. Glorifying the idea of legacy or life as a means to an end makes me really sad, especially when it comes to people dying young. There’s a line about sleeping with a stuffed pig that Brittany Murphy gave me the day I was born; her death has always felt painfully unnecessary to me and has fueled my resentment towards that whole thing. In the video, Maya and Charlie play ‘Movies’ and I’m just trying to make sense of them.”

Like we said, personal, universal – everything about this one’s special. More soon from Samia.

Samia returns today with a patient and plaintive cover of Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville standout “Never Said.” When we first heard some of Samia’s early singles, the Phair influence wasn’t lost on us. Apparently we weren’t alone:

“Had the distinct privilege of meeting John Mellencamp when I was 14 and played him a few of my songs. He goes, ‘Liz Phair. You’re gonna be like Liz Phair,’” says Samia. “Listened to her music pretty exclusively for a few years after that. Haven’t had such a visceral and lasting reaction to anyone’s music since. The original version of this song is obviously untouchable so I wanted to try something completely different. You can probably hear her influence in my voice and songwriting so it would’ve been impossible to record an entirely new version of it, but we slowed that fucker down! Was a real honor to sing this song.” Samia is joined on the recording by friend and fellow NYC songwriter Raffaella on vocals, along with Quinn McGovern who produced the track, and her early 2019 collaboration with Active Bird Community

But that’s not it. Samia also created a lo-fi fever dream of a music video for the song, premiered today via FLOOD and available for your viewing pleasure above. The clip was put together with the help of her friends, actors Lucas Hedges and Fred Hechinger. According to Samia: “I was hanging out with my friends Fred and Lucas last month and we were filming ourselves doing ridiculous characters…I played them the ‘Never Said’ cover and this sort of just happened. We sent it over to Nick [D’Agostino] who sprinkled magic on it and voila!”

The release of “Never Said” comes a few short days after Samia opened for Soccer Mommy at Lincoln Calling Festival, and just before she headlines Samia + Friends at Brooklyn’s Our Wicked Lady on September 28. The Doc Martens mini-festival was curated by Samia herself and features performances from Active Bird Community, Daisy the Great, Nick Cianci, Pearla, Tarune, and a DJ set courtesy of Blu DeTiger. She’ll be keeping busy throughout the rest of the year as well, with an October run of dates with Remo Drive, followed by a November jaunt with Cold War Kids. Tickets on her artist page now.

Samia has been busy. After releasing her double A-side single, “Lasting Friend” / “Paris,” back in January, she jumped on the road with Donna Missal in February, turned heads at SXSW in March, then joined her label mates Hippo Campus on another leg of their Bambi tour in April & May. Today she’s back with “Ode to Artifice,” a new single and music video (featuring a cameo from Mary Louise Parker) directed by Nick D’Agostino. The video just debuted over on Consequence of Sound, as part of their recurring Origins feature.

“The New York singer offers more than poignant confessional lyrics,” says CoS’s Ming Lee Newcombe. “She also crafts striking compositions, which range from dramatic, wailing folk ballads backed by simple piano or acoustic guitar accompaniments to gritty and grungy rock anthems. Always at the forefront is her crystalline voice, carrying each number with its deft transitions between ranges and its emotional power.” 

Of the video, Samia says, “‘Ode to Artifice’ is a desperate plea; my authentic self is lusting after my stage/party persona and begging her to merge. Nick D’agostino and I decided to tell the story of a girl who spends weeks obsessing over the way she’ll present herself at prom, only to discover that she is grossly underdressed compared to the more colorful and popular version of herself who is thriving at the event.”

The video and single come only a few short weeks before a pair of headline shows, one at Rough Trade in Brooklyn, NY and another at Bootleg Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets over on her Artist page. As anyone who caught her with Donna or Hippo can attest, you don’t want to miss these shows.